Regional job prospects for youth ‘bleak’

Encouraging young Australian job seekers to go bush to find employment is not an effective solution when there are already so many rural locals out of work.

That’s one finding of a new report commissioned by the Australian Local Government Association.

‘‘Relocating disengaged young people to regions where work is available when so many young people are already in these regions and are being ignored probably needs a rethink,’’ reads the latest State of the Region report, released on Sunday.

There were an increasing number of people aged 19 to 24 in regional centres who ‘‘languish as non-job ready’’ because of low education and skill levels. And bringing in qualified people to fill jobs was not helping their prospects, the report said.

‘‘In all but a small number of comparatively prosperous inner-city metropolitan [areas], youth employment prospects are bleak,’’ the report said.

An increasing number of young people found themselves in the void between education and work.

Spending on education, along with improvements in telecommunications services and greater investment in transport were among recommendations to prevent already disadvantaged regions from lagging further behind.